The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-04-13
WAYS OF WATERS.
THE SORT OF SERVANTS WHO SEEM
TO SERVE THE PUBLIC BEST.

why One Proprietor Employs Young
Women as Waiters-Another Man Pre-
fers CoIored FoIks--The Virtues O.
Irish Waiters-The French.
Groups of dapper clerks sat around lit
tie tables in a Broadway restaurant down
town the other day, while they uncovered
their heads to the breeze that blew down
from a row of swiftly moving fans that
swung from the ceiling Trim young
w4men in cool dresses tripped about from
table to table, took the orders of the
hungry young men, and returned at ip-
tervals with plates heaped with summer
viands. Every once in the while portly
baldheaded man would come in, and a
trim girl would trip up to him, too, and
smilingly take his order.
Behind the cashiers desk sat a gray
haired man with glasses who raked in all
the money that the dapper young clerks
and the baldheaded men paid for their
meals. He was the man who first
started restaurant in town with young
women for walters
''Why do you employ gtrls?'' re-
porter asked.
Because L have found from the start
that the hungry public like their service
best" the gray haired man instantly re-
piled. '"They are neat and clean, and
they are much more polite and attentive
than any male walters that [ ever came
across"
''What wages do they earn?''
''With board included, from "a to So a
week, according to their ability to serve
quickly and satisfactorily. They work
for this firm from in the morning until
z at night, with recess for dinner and
supper"
COLORED FOLKS.
The next day after listening to the
grayhaired restaurateur's encomium of
his fair walters the reporter dropped in
for luncheon at a well known Park row
dining saloon. A genial old colored
man, whose face was wreathed in smiles,
and who wore long, snOw-white apron,
spread a napkin on the table at which he
sat down, handed a bill of fare to him,
and with polite Yes, sir, all right, "
hurried off to the kitchen to bring the
eatables ordered. He spread the full
dishes before the reporter when he came
back ten minutes later, and then stood
at a vacant table some distance away
and behind the reporter and patiently
waited until the meal was finished. Then
he asked if anything else was wanted,
and receiving q negative reply, handed
the customer a check, bowed and retired.
Behind the desk at which the reporter
paid the check sat a man who had been
over a quarter of a century in the bust
ness of catering to the whims and wants
of hungry business men who are always
in hurry.
''Why do I keep colored waiters?'' he
said. "Why, because 1 wouldn't have
any others. My customers like them,
ana want them. l have walters here
who came to work for me before the
war My experience is that colored
walters are by far the best in the market.
They are more amenable to discipline
than white men, and they certainly are
more civil and attentive. They don't
make life burden to guest if he
doesn't choose to fee them. Who ever
heard of strike where colored walters
were employed and treated as they ought
to be? Their pay varies according to
their ability, but as a rule it averages So
week and board. Here the walters
treat us well and we treat them likewise.
When they are sick they draw half pay
regularly until they are well again
NEAT IRIsHMEN.
The reporter sauntered later on over
to the famous rOtunda of another down
town inn. Business men sat in shoals
around the lunch counter prOpped upon
high stools. Neat Irishmen with white
aprons scurried back and forth between
the invisible kitchen and the counters,
bringing all sorts of hot and cold dain-
ties. For three hours the procession
back and forth was kept up, and for
three hours the shoals of business men
shot the food down their threats with
that heroic Indifference to dyspepsia and
that wild and awful haste that are the
peculiar characteristics of the down town
business man. The jingle of coin on
the lunch counter frequently mingled
with the clatter of dishes, and bespoke
the welcome fee to the waiter. Upstairs
in the managers office the manager
paused a long time, as if wrestling with
a problem, when he was asked why he
preferred white walters.
''Well,' he replied at length, ''they
have been in the house ever since the
days when Charles Dickens was a guest
here. AS far as l am able to judge the
white walters are the most expeditions
in service, and therefore the most salts
factory to the guests and ourselves. We
have large custom daily, and it is an
object to get the customers served and
let them depart quickly. Delay would
mean loss of 33H. per cent. of in
come, which is big item when the noon
trade climbs up into the thousands The
1rlSH WalUefS nandle the rush OF OfuefS SO
that we have no loss at all. We have col
ored help for hall boys and find that as
such they are without an equal. In the
dining room proper, where things go more
than in the rotunda we have
French walters, and they probably are
the best for that sort of service. The
Irish walters get from So to 50 week
and board, and the French about the
same with the perquisites of fees, which
are sometimes something handsome. -
New Y Ork Sun.